Can they be disabled somehow? You know so that at all times, they just point straight ahead exactly where I have aimed them and never move again. Why...do I want to do this you ask, well I might have a problem with one of the headlights and would rather disable at the current time than spend the 1500 bucks for the price of the light alone.

 

You must be referring to the turning headlights, not the cornering fog lights. The early active headlights seem to have some sort of an issue with the horizontal control motor. I've seen lately a huge number of owners reporting about the motor failure. Perhaps you should get some good will compensation for the fix.

The feature cannot be switched off. I doubt it would work if you coded the car for basic xenons. I guess you currently also have a malfunction indicated at the cluster.

I've encouraged owners to have a look at the lamp design, if the horizontal control motor could be changed. Officially the whole lamp unit is one spare part and parts of it cannot be serviced. But the vertical motor should be an MB spare part (for another model) and owners who have had issues with that, have successfully changed this motor only.

 

DTB P-B-82.10/626 JUN08 Curve illumination nonfunctional up to VIN A564853 and X161341 the actuator lines for the motor, sensor and/or bi-xenon bulb of the reflector module can chafe on the metallic leaf spring during swivel operations and cause a short circuit. To resolve, repair film will be applied to both headlamps.

Out of warranty
You can purchase repair film part #A2118260124 for $20 and follow install instructions within DTB however, if there are any fault codes stored they will have to cleared by dealer through SDS.

 

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!! Where can I get a copy of the DTB?

 

PM your email address

 

The first time I see the "technical explanation" for the issue. Too bad it exists but not as bad after there is a known way to solve it.

 

Sorry. What is DTB?

 

Dealer Technical Bulletin (service bulletin) normally not covered out of under warranty unless modification is documented to correct a known defect (production or otherwise) in which case one can argue for a goodwill repair out of warranty.

 

So when I turn on my headlights against a perpendicular, flat white wall, I clearly see them aim up & down (self-level), and I think I MAY see them quickly dart side to side, but I'm not sure. The motion is VERY quick, and it doesn't seem to go very far. I tried pulling the car further away from the wall (increasing the distance of the pivot which would hopefully exaggerate the movement), but there still doesn't seem to be much of a change.

BTW.. I had the car scanned in May and didn't see any headlight fault codes. Also, does the cornering occur with the highbeams on as well? When switching from low>>high, I definitely see the lights aim up.

I can scan the car again in a few weeks, which code should I be looking for if I can't manually verify cornering?

 

DubVBenz .. when I'm driving if I return the car to straight from a turn abruptly, you can see the headlights "lag" a bit.

There is a euro style "round about" by my house. When I come out of it, if I do it abruptly and watch the headlights, you can see them lag a bit.

 

I've started to really pay attention and notice the movement. I'm in the middle of an urban area, so my headlights are often not the single source of light. I'm looking forward to driving the car at night in some more rural areas to check out this effect.

 

I'm in a fairly well lit area and its still visible .. just make abrupt turns and the headlights lag because they weren't meant to deal with such abrupt movements .. just be safe doing it because it requires you to look elsewhere than where you should be looking during a turn.